OSHA Launches Probe into Deadly Recycling Plant Explosion
- Two workers died and two or three others suffered minor injuries after two explosions and a large fire tore through Brent Industries, an industrial textile recycling facility in Toledo, Ohio, on the morning of Aug. 18 during a shift change, according to Toledo Fire Chief Allison Armstrong.
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation, which it has up to six months to complete. Fire officials said tanks containing mineral spirits, a petroleum solvent the company uses to clean work gloves and textiles, were on site, though the cause of the explosions remains undetermined and environmental monitors detected no hazardous air threat.
- This is not the first fatal incident at a Brent Industries facility. The company’s Alabama operation suffered a deadly explosion in 2015 that killed one person, which OSHA determined was caused by flammable mineral spirits vapor igniting in an industrial washing machine, resulting in six citations and a $27,000 fine.
- OSHA also cited Brent Industries’ Toledo plant in 2004 for two serious violations, including failing to protect workers from a 207-degree Fahrenheit steam release from a washing machine.
OSHA Investigating After Surgical Team Rescues Trapped Worker
- A worker’s arm became trapped in a conveyor belt roughly 10 feet above the ground at a Newport Materials facility in Westford, Massachusetts on Aug. 14, prompting an unusual rescue operation that required a surgical team to assist firefighters over two and a half hours.
- The surgical team secured the worker in a harness and administered an IV while he remained alert and conscious throughout the extrication. Fire Chief Michael Denehy called it “a once-in-a-lifetime” event, noting even experienced personnel on scene had never encountered anything like it.
- Robert Ball, a surgeon from Lowell General Hospital who assisted with the rescue, credited first responders with keeping the worker calm and safe during the operation despite its chaotic nature.
- The worker was successfully freed and airlifted by Boston MedFlight to a regional Level 1 trauma center for further care, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is now investigating the incident.